I travel for my job. A lot. I’ve had jobs that entail a fair amount of travel for about 10 years now, and my recent stay in Overland Park, KS, is quickly moving to the top of my list of Worst Ever Hotel Experiences.
I was browsing the hotel chain’s website tonight, making sure that all my points are registered there, and saw that I needed to submit a “missing points” request for last week’s stay (once that stay is registered, I’ll be “gold” status with this chain). One of the questions on the “missing points” form is the room rate (so they can figure out the correct number of points to give you).
As I was doublechecking my rate, I realized that while my confirmed reservation showed one rate, the rate I paid was $10 higher. I vaguely remember mentioning when I checked in that the rate they were having me initial seemed higher than the one I was expecting, but it was almost midnight, I was exhausted, and so I bought their response of “that rate’s not available” or some such.
Well, I’m not tired now. I’m angry. In ten years of business travel, I’ve never been charged a higher rate than the one on my confirmed reservation.
I will be back in Overland Park next week, and I will be making an appointment to see the GM of the hotel where I stayed last time. I’ll be taking with me a copy of the letter I left with the front desk when I checked out (since I’m confident they never gave it to him), and after speaking with him, I’ll be sending a copy of the letter to the corporate office of this particular chain.
I’ve gotta say… I’m easily irritated at things, but my irritations are quickly dispersed, and not long-lasting. It takes a lot to make me truly angry, and these folks have done it. I’ll also be sending a letter to my company’s travel department, expressing my extreme dissatisfaction with this particular hotel in this particular town.
My question for our more knowledgeable readers is this: Is it common for a hotel to charge a guest a different rate at check-in than what is on the confirmed reservation? A reservation, I might add, that’s being held by a credit card to ensure that the room and rate will be available upon check-in? Is it legal to do this? Did I lose any right to complain when I initialed the room rate upon check-in? I just want to have all my ducks in a row when I visit the GM next week.
Thanks for your input.
As the GM of a hotel not far from Overland Park (Best Western Paola, KS, just in case you want to change in the future) my policy is that a guarenteed rate is exactly that. Sometimes our property management system (yes it actually is called a PMS) will change to a default rate. We try to catch this when it happens by always checking rates on check-out and correcting any glitches. If a guest says the rate is not they one they agreed on initially and we don’t have a registration form showing the correct rate, we take the guest’s word and change the rate. Better to lose a little and have a happy guest than lose future business over a couple bucks.
Every chain is different and some GMs are more rigid in their bureaucratic stance. These don’t tend to make a career in this business. In my experience, however, a good GM will make a problem right even long after you have checked out even if the only way to do so is to offer a free night.
Let me know by email if you will be in the area in the future. I will be happy have you stay with us and hope you will be happier with our service.
Comment by Sam Parkins — 20070101 @ 0641
I like Mr. Parkins’ attitude and I hope that the guy at your original hotel sees fit to make good…but in a legal sense, you accepted the rate by initialing the registration card when you checked in (that is, in fact, the point of having you do so, just as it is when you initial the “Decline” boxes on a an auto rental form).
Comment by David Hecht — 20070101 @ 0804
Well, I can’t say that it was a common occurrence,but it has happened to me in the past. I found that a call to the customer service desk usually corrected the matter. And, like Sam says above, most hotel (chains at least) would rather have a happy customer, because happy customers will tell a couple of people, unhappy ones will tell a LOT of people. Barring that, on the next visit, take both your confirmation sheet with rate and your bill back to the hotel and ask for a correction. From there, your remedies will depend on your persistence.
Comment by JoeC — 20070101 @ 1015
Yeah, it happens. I’ve never had any trouble with it; just show the manager the rate on the letter, and they change it. If they argue with you, _then_ get excited.
And honestly, it’s not worth getting angry: the person at the counter doesn’t know, and they give you the rate the computer says to give you; if they tap one key wrong, they get the rack rate, and if you don’t notice, they sure won’t. But remember that people working the night shift at a hotel are generally the ones who aren’t educated enough to work fast food and aren’t pretty enough to be strippers.
Comment by Charlie (Colorado) — 20070103 @ 2033